Automobile



F. J. HAYN-ES Nov. 3, 1925- AUTOMOBILE 2 Sheecs-Shee'c 2 Filed Aug. 12, 1922 Pafenie Nov. 3, 1925.

PATENT OFFICE.

zmmmmcx J. HAYNES, 01 DETROIT, MIOHIGAN, mssm1von. '10 boncn'nkournmas, INC., 01 DETBOIT, MIGHIGAN, A CORPORATION o1 MARYLAND.

urmomdpxm.

Application flled August 12, 1922. 8eria1 ZN 0. 581,298.

T all w7wm z't may concem:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK J HAYNES% a citizen of the United States, residmg. at Detroit, Michigan, have invented a certain new and useful Improvenient in Automobiles, 0f

which the felldwing is a clear, full, and exact description. 1

My invention relates to an automobile, and one of my dbjects is to provide a coustruction by' which a sedan, 'for example, may be quickly converted from a pa ssenger cal to one adapted for delivery servme and the effective carrying capacity matenally increased. v

In a closed-body .car, such for example as a sedan, the carrying capacity to thc rear 0f the front seat is limited. T0 allow room enough behind the stcering wheel, the back of the front seat usually extends cons1derably to the rear of the sidc frame of the rear door, rendering it difficult 130 introduce bulky packages or boxes thr.ough *l:he rear door. T-he rgar seat Cushion is usually removable for the utpose of cleaning'and 170 obtain acCess to t e seat box undetnezith the same. This box, which acts as a support for the seat cushion and also as a. storage space, has heretofore been built in, that is, made permanent, and as it i s raised cousiderably above the floor it intcrferes materially with the storage capacity of the car The interior of the car 1s also Provided with upholstery at each side cf the rear saut and at the back, which would be chafed, stained and injured if bulky boxes und other 'packages were transported.

Farmers und others who have on1y one autoniobile require a construction which will allow of the storage and transportatidn 0f a considerable quantity of good's. The closed body automobile is the type which is indicated as the one especially to be desired in the future, as this ty e is rapidly -increasing in popularity. (Eng object of m invention is to pr0vide a car whic h is espcc1- ally useful for a erson who has only one car, which shall be so constructed and a1- ranged thatit may. be used as an ordinary passenger vcar or quickly adapted for 'the the body o r interio1 upholstery. This result -I have accomplished by t-he m'eans hereafter struction by means of'which thcside uptransportation cf goods without injury t0.

gedan type, it will be obvious that my invention is applicable to other st-yles 0f body, without deParting from the spirit of my invention as claimed.

In the drawings which represent the form cf my invention which I now prefer, Fig. 1 1s a vertical central section through a sedan body;

Fig. 2 is a plan.view cf the rear end of the body portion cf the sedan, showing the supportmg means in place forthe rear seat, a'nd the rear seat removed to show the fender bars a1; the sides of the body, and 'stifiening bars at the rear thereof; c F ig. 3 is a.detail sectional view in elevat1on taken through the section line 3-3 cf Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a detail sectional view in elemt1on-taken qn Ii-ne 4-4 of Fig. 2 and show- 1ng a side cushion in place; F1g. 5 is a detail sectional view of a modified means for supporting the rear s6afg -by means'of which it 1s unneaes5ary to remove bodi ly the rear seat cushion; and F1g. 6 is zi detail vie'w cf a, modified canholstery sections may be reversed und fastened in place with the upholstery fac-' ing inwardly;

The 'car is provided with the usual doors,-in the present case two pairs of doors, one Pair A in front, and'the other pair B in rear. Opposite the freut pair is a front seat 1 with the usuz'zl steering Wheel 2 and its column 3. Bctween the doors is the usual door frame 4 extcnding upward from the floor 5.' v

As illustrated herein, the back cf the front seat, when in it's normal position -shown in dotted lins e'xtends to the real cf the plane joining the rear sids cf the door frame 4, which would interfere with the entrance cf bulky packages thx0ugh the rear-d0or openmg.

In orde1 to dem" this s ace, the back cf the seat is made so that 1t may be shifted forward to clear this plane. This. may be dong by pivoting the same, und in the present instance I have shown th6 combined seat and back gortion as pivoted at 7 so tha.t it may be tilte for\vatd asi ndicated in Fig. l. It may be held in thisosition by a 130ggle-joint strut 8, if desire. T hisconstmction allows free access to the intel'ior through the rear door und is particularly adva.ntageous when bulky paokages are 130 beintraduced into the interior.

9 indicates the rear seat such as the ordinary seat cushion. This is supported ab any desired height above the level of the floor by any desired means. Such support may be, if desired, a bottomless box 10, which is made readily removable in the sense that it may readily be shifted from its position obstructing the floor space to a osition such that the floor space is tendered unobstructed by it. I prefer to make it removable bodily and have so shown it in Figs. 2 and 3. A conve nient means is provided consisting of feet 11 perforated to accommodate a wing holt 12 passing therethrough and into a threaded hole 01 socket in the floor and by. Which the box upport may be readily attached in position or detachecl therefrom by a person in the interior of the body and without the necessity of getting underneath the car.

The floor 5, constructted of substantial material suh as will bear the weight of passengers 0r heavy boxes, extends across the body and is extendedl rearwardly underneath the rear seat and substantially t0 the rear end of the interior of the body. When the ream seat cushion is taken out and its support removed, a clear space from the back .of the frontseat to substantially the rear end of the body is provided, thus eliminating the permanent rear seat box of the ordinary construction of such vehicles. This materially increases the carrying capacity 013 the vehicle and allows a greater quantity of goods to be stored in the interior.

A olosed-body car such as illustrated is provided with upholste over the frontseat cushion, back, the si es of the do0rs below t-he windows, over the body sections at either side and over the back of the rear seat. Transportalzion of boxes'and other packages in the vehicle would stain, .chafe and otherwise injure such upholstery if made of fabric, as is usual, and I prefer to Inake such upholstery of lea.tlier 01' other readily-and removed bodily if desire&whe'n goods a1e to be carried in the interior. Various e xpedients for accomplishing this result may be provided. In t-he present embodiment I have shown each section provided at one side, preferably tho to with one or more tongues 20 and the bo y with 'coryesponding slotted ears 21. When in is des1red to attach a section, the tongues nre passed through the slots, and the two thon act as pivots so that the section may be swung down 'to its normal position. These connecti0ns are preferably made of spring metal and so formed that, as indioated in Figs. 3 and 4, the tongue will engage the body portion just before the section reaches its normal position, and, when it is forced into place and fastened by the wing nuts 22, it will be held under resilient tension, thereby preventing any rattle between the parts.

In order to increase the storage space further the body is preferably formed over each of the rear wheels with a recess 25, as indicated more ol'early in the transverso def-ail section Fig. 4. Suitable fender b'ars 26 are provicled, preferably fastened :1t the bottom to the metal body at 27 a.ncl at the top t0 the tacking-strip 28 of the body. These project Slightly outward from a plane joining the tacking-strip and- Portion 29 over tl1e whe el so as to proteot the body from "111- jury. The bars 26 also operate as strengthening o1 stifiening members for 'cbe body itself.

Similar protecting and stifl'ening bars 30, in this case running longitudinally, may Ire provicled to the rear of the rear section.

' A clear and substantially unobstruoted space for transportation of boxes, pack&ges, etc. is thus provided with suitablo protection of the body against injury when the rear seat, its support and the side and baok upholstered sections are removed from their positions.

' I am aware that it may not be necessary in all cases to remove bodil y the rear section. In

Fig. 5, I for example, have shown a modified construction in which this section is pivoted to the body at 35 und provided With a support 36 pivoted at 37. The seotion may be removed from its normal dotted-line posrtion by s'winging the same upwardly, as indioatecl in full lines, where it will nest intoo1 be reoeived by a reoess in the body provideol behind the back section, the supporting board 36 being folded down as indicated. The frame of fhe cushion ma itself form the protecting felnders. 01 addrtional transverse fenders 38 nmy be provided.

Instead of taking the side upholstery sections out of the car, it may be desirable, if the storage space provided by the recess 25 is not desired, merely to reverse such section und again fasten it in place but with the upholstered face contained within the recess as indicated in Fig. 6. The rear face of the frame of this section. provided with additional fender bats such as 40 if desired, will aot as a protecting device for preventing chafing 01 injury t0 the vehicle body.

By the foregoing construction I have provided an arrangement of part s by which a car of the sedan type, for example, may be readily and quickly converted into an eifectiw3 carrier for the transportation o:f a large quantity of goods, without injury to the body or the upholstery, and which may quickly be re converted into an upholstered type for ordinary pleasure use. I am aware that various modifications of the above described construction may be made without departin from the spirit f my invention as c'1aimec, und I do not limit myself to the particular arrangements which have been setforth above as an illustrative example.

WhatI claim is l. An automobile having front und rear seats, upholstered sections adjacent said rea1 seat, und a pair of doors rearwardly of the front seat, the back 0f the front seat being located to the rear of a plane passing through the forward edge 0f the door, means whereby the back of the front seat may be shifted forward to clea1 the door space, means for detachably fastening the 1ear seat und its support to the floor of the car, and means for detachably fastening the upho1- stered sections to the car body so a s t0 be hel l by resilient pressure, whereby when the said rear seat and upholstered sections a1e removed the ortion to the rea1" of the front saut is rendered substantially unobstructed.

2. An automobile body having an upholstered section detachably pivoted to the body at one side by a tongue and'slot connection, means for detachably fastening another side of the said section into position, the said tongue and slot connection being so constructed and arrang'ed that when the section is swungthereon as a pivot and fastened at the other side the section is held by resilient pressure between said tongue and formed over the rear Wheels, und besidethe rear seat to attain readily accessible storage space, and upholstered seetions adapted to cover the said recesses provided with means whereby the sind sect1ons may be readily renxoved.

Signed at Detroit, Michigan this 7th day of August 1922.

FREDERICK J. HAYNES. 

